The Masters who have influenced me in Meditation

Six paths to travel the journey of knowing yourself

Photo by César Couto on Unsplash

I have been interested in Meditation as a means to get to Enlightenment for about 30+ years now. I owe a lot of the progress I've made to these people and the practices that they offered:

The “Kundalini” path using Kriya Yoga with Yogiraj Gurunath

I came across An Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramhansa Yoganand while randomly walking the library in University of Cincinnati. Little did I know that would alter the course of my life. (Steve Jobs asked this book to be handed out at his funeral.)

Yogiraj gives the “no mind” or “samadhi” experience in his meditation sessions. The transmission of this experience shows the eventual destination in meditation.

There wasn’t any turning back for me once I experienced “no mind.” Some men run after wealth, others after women and I was all about “no mind.”

I practiced Kriya Yoga for seven years.

You can find Gurunath here and on YouTube.

The “Tantra (emotional)” path using Sri Vidya with Avadhoot Shivanand “Babaji”

In the 90s, I read a book called Living with the Himalayan Masters by Swami Rama where he talked about Sri Vidya, Tantra and Kashmir Shaivism as a way to get to enlightenment.

However, I couldn’t find any Gurus teaching it because Sri Vidya has been kept secret through ages.

Years later, I came across Babaji and fell in love with Sri Vidya and practiced it for about 10-12 years (and still do). Sri Vidya is a mix of kundalini yoga, energy work (think advanced Reiki master work), manifestation work and more. The energy has to be experienced—it is impossible to describe.

Babaji rewired me completely. I went from a ”mostly unhappy” to a “mostly happy” person.

“No mind” or “Turiya” became accessible though I needed to put in an hour to get there. One to two or even three hour meditation sessions became the norm for me in this practice.

You can find more about Avadhoot Baba Shivananad “Babaji” here or on YouTube.

The ”intellectual path” with Advaita Philosophy with Rupert Spira, Francis Lucille and Ramana Maharishi

My years in the earlier practices took me deep into meditation but no closer to enlightenment which became frustrating. I came across a chance video on YouTube from Rupert Spira that said “enlightenment isn’t esoteric, in fact it is our default state and it is so common that we overlook it.”

This took me down the rabbit hole of “Advaita,“ “non-dual” or the “intellectual” path. I came across wonderful lessons from Rupert, his teacher Francis Lucille and spent hours on YouTube internalizing them.

Advaita or Non-duality is an age old practice but was advocated in modern times by the famous Indian sage “Ramana Maharishi.”

It starts from asking yourself the question “Who am I?” or ”What am I?.” The question gets you to “no mind” instantly. The practice established me in a place where “no mind” is always and instantly accessible to me.

You can find each of the teachers at … and on YouTube.

• Rupert Spira

• Francis Lucille

• Ramana Maharishi

Jeffrey Martin from 45daystoawakening.com

Enlightenment has a fuzzy definition with every master alluding to an experience that they have had and the followers interpreting it their own way. It was fuzzy for me too.

Jeffrey who is a research scientist spent a decade or more interviewing 1000+ people who have transitioned to enlightenment. He pulled out the key characteristics of their internal state and human experience. He wrote the map of the vast landscape of enlightenment (it isn’t one location or state).

He then came up with a “protocol” that takes you to the state in 45 days (Incredible!). A number of the meditation methods in the protocol come from existing meditation practices. This philosophy resonated with me because I had independently come to the conclusion that you need to pull from a pool of meditation practices and not stick to one.

Jeffrey answered for me what enlightenment is and ended my three decade search for it. He also mapped out the world post transition. This post transition map is what Gurus from the various Indian systems talk about—this overlap resonated with me as well.

You can find Jeffrey at the course site. Caution: this is heavy work for 45 days.

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Osho—The master of all paths

There is no spiritual philosophy that Osho has not talked about. He was and has been my go to resource if I want a quick intro and guide to a particular philosophy.

My regret is that I never went to his commune though I lived in Pune.

I am afraid I just cannot describe Osho in a pithy paragraph. You will have to discover him yourself.

The path of devotion with Guru Nanak

He founded the Sikh religion in the 1400s which was very modern for its time and continues to hold its own space today. (equality of men and women, no caste system and an emphasis on karma or work).

He prescribed a path of devotion (which unfortunately wasn’t my thing). However, his lessons is what I have grown up with and continue to follow. Osho’s writing on Guru Nanak’s prayer “Ek Omkar Satnam” (there is one God and its name is truth) is a fantastic read.

These people have taught me so much—and, just like they did with me, I hope to pass along my own learnings to the next person.